


Truths Confessed

by silberstreif



Category: Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Drama, M/M, Sad Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-10
Updated: 2016-10-10
Packaged: 2018-08-21 17:59:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8255126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silberstreif/pseuds/silberstreif
Summary: The war is over and for the first time both sides sit together and talk - about the war and its beginning. And they begin to wonder... who was it that destroyed all hope by killing Sentinel Prime?





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [pjlover666](https://archiveofourown.org/users/pjlover666/gifts).



> Warning: This is an OLD story of mine that I never uploaded. I have improved since then. Still, it would be a shame if it never saw the light of the day.
> 
> Prompt giver: Pjlover666. It was a kind of happy / sad prompt about romance and my brain insisted on drama. Sorry, you're the romance queen of the two of us! My genre is drama...*hug*
> 
> Beta: Starfire201 - As always she did wonderful work, even though she noted more than once that this obviously an old story of mine. It seems my grammar and spelling did get better, despite me swearing differently. ;-)

**Truths confessed**

 

The war had raged for aeons, with no mercy on either side, with no consideration or even doubt. The sparks that had ignited the inferno had drenched it all in the feeling of righteous bloodshed that stained every single death. "Justice!" demanded the leaders to the soldier giving his life on an endless battlefield for the murdered Prime and politician. "Justice!" was the battle cry heeded again and again.

Optimus Prime, chosen for his virtues and strong convictions, managed after several vorns to coax the former bodyguards of Sentinel Prime back into service. Again and again he promised that they hadn't failed Sentinel, that he needed them, but they hadn't listened. Until he came and begged and, as desperation claimed him, whispered:

"Do you want to be guilty of all the deaths you could have saved as well?"

Those poisoned words which gained Optimus the service of his two best mechs soon proved to be all he had hoped for and more. And yet, when Optimus worked with them, he could feel their gazes on him; gazes which were always a bit too cold, a bit too fanatical and a bit too distant. But then, in these violent times, who wasn't those things? So he never asked.

Even in an endless war, though, times and fronts change and finally they sat around a table, Autobots and Decepticons, having become so few that necessity had finally forced them together and yet the hate between them was as strong as ever. Grievances were exchanged back and forth, some to be settled, some to be forgiven, and some to finally end in misery. And yet, hope slowly kindled as it became clear that all the years of war hadn't changed the fact that they were of one race.

But then, Megatron looked up and said: "I can't trust you, Prime. The last Prime I gave my trust to killed one of my politicians and friends for nothing but sport. Tell me why you're different."

A name hang in the room, heavy and unspoken. Torch. It had to come to this. "Megatron," said Optimus, trying to keep his voice neutral, "I do not plan to break this peace for anything."

But the warlord only barked a laugh. "Sentinel once said the same."

"Then, I do not know why Sentinel did as he did."

"No?" Megatron stared at him and whatever he found in Prime's face made him hesitate for a moment. "You don't know?"

Optimus could feel the optics of all the gathered officers on him as he answered: "No."

"Do you really mean to tell me that you never wanted to know why we fought this thrice damned war?!" snarled Megatron.

Optimus shrugged. "I wanted to do it differently. And it wouldn't have changed anything." He doubted it would change anything now. "But tell me, Megatron, Sentinel was found murdered shortly after Torch... Torch alone perhaps wouldn't have led to this war. But Sentinel's death was too much to be overlooked. Was that revenge really worth it all?"

For a moment the warlord became very, very still. When he answered, his voice was dark and heavy: "Prime, believe me in this, if in nothing else - I didn't kill Sentinel and I never gave the order to have him killed. I do not know who the killer of your predecessor is, but it was none of mine."

Sheer disbelief settled over the Autobots. Then a commotion broke out as they began to shout, and curse and deny, but Optimus simply shuttered his optics and vented. When he looked up, he looked at his soldiers and said one word: "Silence." He turned to the warlord, contemplating the implications. "You're aware that you just said that an Autobot killed the previous Prime."

Megatron only nodded, not deigning this question with any further answer. Not that Optimus had expected anything different. "So, if you don't know and I don't know... who does...?"

Megatron's gaze wandered behind him, over his shoulders to the two black and white bodyguards. "I always wondered," he began slowly, "why the investigation led to no conclusion."

Prime turned in his seat towards his trusted lieutenants. "Prowl and Jazz?" Of course he had known that they had investigated Sentinel's death. They had been his bodyguards, it had been their job to look into what had happened.

Jazz didn't move and all, while Prowl only tilted his head. "Prime."

Optimus sighed. Megatron was suspicious, but it was fortunate that Jazz and Prowl were here. Of all the bots that had been directly involved then, they were the only ones to survive this long war. Maybe they could even confirm that Sentinel didn't order Torch's death.

"Please, answer Megatron's questions and all those of mine that might follow."

Surprise was briefly visible on the warlord's face, but he hid it quickly. This was an unprecedented opportunity to finally get all viewpoints of that past disaster, realised Optimus.

"As you wish." Jazz and Prowl began their report, as always correct and complete to the very last detail. They began with the notification of another officer that Sentinel Prime had been found dead, and their various leads that all turned out to be nothing but distraction and camouflage.

All mechs listened intently to the tale that hadn't been spoken of in so long in any way but the call for revenge.

"I see," muttered Megatron as they finished their tale by describing their recruitment at Optimus' servos. "And Torch? Did Sentinel ever want to deactivate Torch?"

Jazz and Prowl shared a long look and Optimus felt himself tense along with everyone else in the room. 'Please,' he suddenly prayed to Primus. 'Don't let the answer be yes.'

"Nope," Jazz said then with a smile that was a mask if Optimus had ever seen one. "He didn't. Actually, the opposite was the case. He wanted Torch alive."

Optimus relaxed, and with him nearly everyone else. Only Megatron remained straight as if ready to attack and asked: "So, he never gave the order to have Torch killed?"

"Never," answered Prowl.

"You're very sure." Megatron's optics narrowed. "Why?"

Another long look between the black and whites. Then Jazz shrugged nonchalantly. "Come on, we knew him. We were nearly always with him."

"But not when he was killed."

Jazz's visor darkened. "No, not then."

Optimus had watched them, unable to stop the interrogation now that he had given his permission. And yet, he had the feeling that Megatron was fishing for something...

"So, if Sentinel wanted to keep Torch alive, something must have endangered him, right?"

It was a daring conclusion to come to. Before any bot in the room could object, Prowl had already answered: "Yes."

Even Megatron was startled for second, not having expected this cold, single syllable. "Yes, what?"

"Yes, something endangered Torch." Prowl smiled joylessly. "After all, he was deactivated."

Optimus felt faint. He knew this behaviour. He had seen it before, in situations where their survival chances had been minimal, where Jazz and Prowl had stopped believing they would see the next orn... then they had started this certain deflection with truths and half-truths, until every word itself became a game. He never found out if they did it to distract themselves or because this dangerous behaviour was what genuinely laid beneath their friendly façades.

Megatron, though, didn't let himself stop. He was a hunter, and the truth his prey. "What endangered him?"

"We did." Jazz smiled, while ignoring that suddenly half the room's hands twitched towards weapons that they had given away at the entrance. "Two vorns before Torch was found, Prowl and I suggested killing him."

Megatron clenched his fists, the only sign of his fury. "Why?"

"Because he was blackmailing Sentinel."

The unreal proclamation stunned the room.

"With what?" asked someone, and Optimus registered surprise that this someone was himself.

Jazz sighed. "Prostitution. Torch claimed that Sentinel was a customer of a prostitution ring that only sold mechas younger than 20 vorns."

This time Optimus looked towards Megatron, who just stared. Of course, that was what nearly everyone did. It was a ludicrous claim. A Prime sinking to prostitution? Of mechlings and younglings, no less? Not even the Decepticons in their worst defamations had ever created such a fairytale. And yet, Jazz and Prowl weren't even smiling. No, they were dead serious.

"So Torch tried to blackmail Sentinel?" said Megatron after a few astroseconds, and even he couldn't stop the small note of disbelief from creeping into his voice.

"Yes, and he succeeded." Prowl's wings fluttered, a clear sign of nervousness. Otherwise, he could have been a statue. "Sentinel believed him and sent Jazz and I to negotiate with him, so that the peace might not be endangered. We had orders to agree to whatever he demanded."

"And we did," answered Jazz quietly.

Optimus sighed. "Why did you never say anything of this before?"

They didn't answer him. Instead, the couple looked at a very pensive Megatorn, waiting for something. The warlord finally nodded. "And two vorns later Torch was found dead." He stared at them. "I knew Torch. There were not many things he would have agreed to in this position..."

"There weren't," agreed Prowl, wings sinking low.

On the other side of the room, Soundwave was lowering his head, if in sorrow or as a sign to his lord, Prime didn't know.

Megatron looked from Prowl to Jazz and back and in his optics for the first time in thousands of vorns was fury and pity in equal measure. "Which of you did he take and who killed him?"

The room erupted in a pandemonium so loud that most didn't hear the answer: "He took Jazz."

"And Prowl freed me."

Optimus jumped out of his chair, turning around as he did so, forgetting that he was showing his unprotected back to Megatron and the whole Decepticon army. "You? You killed Torch?!" And started the war and the sorrow and the dark times?

The room fell quiet. Prowl answered his screamed questions as coolly as if there had never been a doubt who did it: "I did, Prime."

"Why?" Optimus asked. "You must have known..."

For the first time, Prowl's confidence wavered and he looked away, towards the many mechs simply staring at him in disgust, betrayal and shock. "I knew. And that was the only reason I managed to watch for two vorns, how he raped and used and abused my bondmate in all ways possible while he forced me to watch." He looked back at Prime, his optics full of long buried and hidden emotions that cut far deeper than anything since then. "I managed, barely. But then... he- he overstepped the line. He forced a sparkmerge on Jazz and intruded where he had no right to intrude. This rage... I've never felt anything like it before or since, Optimus, but then..." His voice broke for a second, and it was all the worse because this was Prowl. Calm, always collected Prowl. "I pulled him off of Jazz, who lay there dying as his spark fell into shock and shot Torch before he could close his spark chamber again."

Jazz was staring at the floor, just having taken that half step closer to his bondmate. Optimus stared and for a moment no one knew what to say. It was a natural thing that one bondmate would protect his other half. And it was a crime nearly beyond measure to not only rape someone, but to force a sparkmerge on a bonded bot while his bondmate watched. Torch must have known... or, better, realised Optimus with horror, what had Torch done before this to Jazz that he had been sure that Prowl would just watch?

"And Sentinel?" asked Megatron darkly. "He was found barely an orn later."

Jazz nodded, his visor getting darker and darker. "We fled back to him. Even though we had entered that pit on his orders, we fled back to him in hope of help and shelter. He was our friend and Prime."

"During those two vorns, I had searched for proof that the claims of Torch were false, so that Jazz could go free." Prowl sighed. "I found none, but yet I didn't, couldn't believe..."

"We both didn't want to believe," corrected Jazz bitterly. "We thought it impossible that we could have missed something like that."

"We were naive." It sounded like a condemnation out of Prowl's mouth.

"Yeah."

Optimus frowned as he began to have an inkling that was too outrageous to ever be true. "Are you saying...?"

"Yes." Jazz's voice was hard as titanium. "Torch had been telling nothing but the damned truth. When we found Sentinel, he simply confessed as if it wasn't a big thing. As if we hadn't just suffered two vorns for his lies!"

"We were probably still unstable from our damaged sparks," said Prowl, "but I don't claim that as an excuse. Fact is, we realised that Sentinel saw us as barely more than his property. That he wasn't thankful or at least empathetic to our pain, that we had simply done our duty as his bodyguards."

"And that he saw the whole of Cybertron in that light. Us, you, the younglings that he raped for nothing but fun. Which he offered us as a thank-you-gift!" The rage in Jazz's voice was deadly, and indeed it had proven fatal to the one bot it had been directed at. "On that orn I agreed with every Decepticon that had screamed for his head and decided that we would finally deliver it."

"You did." Megatron's voice was oddly flat. There was no triumph, no nothing. Just a flat, empty tone.

Optimus could understand him. Torch and Sentinel, two rapists, for which honours they had destroyed their own race. Primus, the irony!!

"We did," confirmed Prowl. "In the belief that Sentinel's and Torch's crimes would be discovered, if not their murderer."

"We underestimated how fast the war would happen." Jazz smiled sadly. "It was as if neither side really cared why they died, they just wanted an excuse."

"Which we had given to you," said the Praxian wryly. "Twice."

The truth cut sharper than any sword. It hurt, to see the irony. It was fitting for this damned war that the reasons they had called for justice had been all the wrong ones that the victims hadn't been those they had tried to avenge.

"You're aware that we now can't just let you walk away," Optimus said slowly to his friends. Though, he suddenly wondered if they had ever considered him as a friend. Or had they always waited for his dark secrets to reveal themselves?

"Sure." Jazz smiled. "You're Prime. That is your job. Wouldn't expect less from you."

"Your trust in him is touching," said Megatron, "But why did you tell us all of this now?" And not earlier? When it might have made a difference? When so many wouldn 't have died for nothing?

For a moment neither Prowl nor Jazz answered, then the Praxian shrugged, unsubspaced two pairs of handcuffs and gave them to Prime.

"Guilt," he simply said.

And Jazz added. "It was time. For the first time you were all just... listening."

No matter what was asked or said or screamed at them, they didn't say more. Not when they were led out of the room, when they sat in the cells while their lives suddenly became a matter of the peace contract and not when Optimus and Megatron visited them together to tell them that they would be executed.

They said nothing. But the last kiss they shared before they were shot spoke of love.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!
> 
> As a public service announcement:  
> I am currently running a Transformer Flash Challenge. It's ideal for people who love prompts, but don't have a lot of time, because the fills are only 500 words long each. ;) It's an October Challenge, but one can upload each week or at the end, so there's still time to join. Also, I can really recommend the fills uploaded so far, we have some fantastic authors.  
> Excitingly, Grayseeker is already preparing a new Flash Challenge for december! So stay tuned. ^_^  
> https://archiveofourown.org/collections/TF_Flash_Challenge/profile


End file.
